A new study from the Arkansas Health Survey shows 688,000 adults in Arkansas lack access to nutritious food.
ARKANSAS, USA — A new statewide health survey shows food insecurity is getting worse in Arkansas, and local organizations said they are seeing that need grow every day.
According to the Arkansas Health Survey, 28.8% of adult Arkansans, which is about 688,000 people, are food insecure, meaning they do not have consistent access to enough nutritious food for a healthy life. That’s about 10% higher than recent reports, which already ranked Arkansas as the most food-insecure state in the nation.
“We don’t see food insecurity uniformly distributed across the state. We see some counties where you see higher prevalence than other counties,” said Michael Niño, associate professor of sociology and criminology at the University of Arkansas and lead researcher for the survey.
Unlike many statewide reports, the Arkansas Health Survey breaks the data down into census tracts which are small, neighborhood-level areas that allow researchers to see differences within communities.
“We have 823 tracks in Arkansas, where we see much higher prevalence than even you would see at the county level… there’s much more variation and a much more nuanced story to tell,” Niño said.
Niño says that level of detail helps leaders and nonprofit groups know where to focus resources.
“It really helps us understand where we should concentrate efforts and start to think about interventions and policies and programs and who actually lives in these particular areas,” he said.
The data can also be mapped alongside the locations of grocery stores and food pantries to show where gaps in access exist.
The survey comes at a critical time. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has announced changes that will end federal food insecurity monitoring.
Because the Arkansas Health Survey is designed to be conducted every year, researchers say it will allow the state to continue tracking trends and responding to needs.
At the county level, Lee, Union, Lincoln, Sebastian, Crittenden, and Columbia counties all have adult food insecurity rates of 32% or higher.
At Antioch for Youth & Family in Fort Smith, they said the numbers reflect what they see firsthand.
“It’s not just a statistic. It’s family, seniors and working people who are choosing between food, rent and utilities,” said Isaac Salazar, Executive Director for Antioch for Youth & Family.
The organization serves thousands of people each year. In 2025 alone, Antioch reports it served more than 32,000 people and distributed over one million pounds of food.
Salazar says the demand continues to grow.
“We’re averaging about 150 new clients every month, so it’s not surprising at all for us,” he said.
He adds that long-term change will take more than food distribution.
“Having that hope, that hope in in a clear and tangible way is I think it’ll make a big difference in the future.”
Researchers say the goal of the survey is to give communities, nonprofits and policymakers the tools they need to reduce health disparities across Arkansas.
“We collected these survey data to really provide this type of information to people in the state to work together to meaningfully reduce health disparities in Arkansas,” Niño said.
Interactive maps from the survey are expected to be available through the AR-COMPASS dashboard later this month.
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